We're officially halfway through the 2025 college football regular season, which means our weekly stock report is probably going to start leveling off. Indiana, Texas Tech and Texas A&M are mainstays here -- and it goes without saying that the standard of excellence is so high that defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Ohio State hasn't appeared here in weeks. While others (hello, Kennesaw State) can shoot seemingly out of nowhere into the top five after one good Saturday.
Or one bad one, as evidenced by Oklahoma.
VIBES UP
1. Indiana: No longer is Indiana winless in 46 tries on the road against the AP top-5. The 30-20 win over then-No. 3 Oregon surged the Hoosiers past four teams plus the 1945 and 1967 squads to earn the highest ranking, No. 3, in IU history. Indiana received three first-place votes and ranks No. 1 in various resume metrics. Without a ranked opponent left on their schedule, it's quite possible, if not likely, we'll see 12-0 Ohio State against 12-0 Indiana in Indianapolis for the Big Ten title.
2. BYU: Colorado and Arizona are not expected to contend for the Big 12 championship, and BYU beat them by three and by six in double OT. But they beat them all the same. Fox's Big Noon Kickoff is coming to Provo for the first ranked vs. ranked Holy War in 16 years. Win here and at Ames, and Nov. 8 at Texas Tech has the chance to be one of the biggest games in BYU, and Texas Tech, and Big 12, history. It's all out in front of Kalani Sitake's team.
3. Georgia Tech: A 35-20 win over Virginia Tech pushed the Ramblin' Wreck to 6-0 for the first time since 1964, a year that saw a 7-0 start wilt into a 7-3 finish. Without a ranked opponent until No. 9 Georgia to end the regular season, it would take an upset to keep Brent Key's team from an 11-0 start.
4. Kennesaw State: In his first season on the job, Jerry Mack's 2-0 start to C-USA play has matched the Owls' conference win total from a year ago. After losing by one to Wake Forest and by 47 to Indiana (no shame in that!), Kennesaw State has rattled off four straight wins, including a 35-7 drubbing of Louisiana Tech on Thursday night.
5. Navy: After a 5-7 start, Brian Newberry is 16-3 as the admiral of the Navy football program. Saturday's 32-31 squeaker over Temple -- Blake Horvath raced in a 50-yard touchdown with 39 seconds left, then hit a do-or-die 2-point pass -- pushed the Midshipmen to their second consecutive 6-0 start while extending their overall winning streak to nine. By my count, that's the longest winning streak since taking 10 in a row across the 1959-60 seasons.
6. UNLV: Dan Mullen's team is 6-0 for the first time since a 12-0 start in 1974. This didn't come out of nowhere, of course; UNLV is now 26-8 since 2023 after enduring nine straight losing seasons. The reward for all this success? Expectations. Anything less than a Mountain West title -- after losing to Boise State in the last two championship games -- will feel like a disappointment.
7. Texas Tech: The injury to starting quarterback Behren Morton was not as serious as it appeared, but even still, Tech won going away the way we've come to expect out of Joey McGuire's team: by rushing for 372 yards and four touchdowns on 9.3 a carry, and by pitching a second-half shutout. Wait, what?
8. Texas A&M: Scoring a 34-17 win over a team that beat your rival one week prior feels quite good. At 6-0, Texas A&M is off to its best start since 2016, and a win at lowly Arkansas on Saturday pushes the Aggies to their best start since 1994. Assuming Mike Elko's team doesn't slip up against the Hogs, South Carolina or Samford, a 1-2 mark at No. 10 LSU, No. 16 Missouri and No. 21 Texas would punch their first Playoff ticket, but they're eyeing much more than simply a ticket to the dance.
9. South Florida: South Florida has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the country, but the 28-year-old program has never won a conference championship. The Bulls are far from home free -- they're one of three 2-0 AAC teams, and Navy is 4-0 -- but winning on the road by 27 over a previously-undefeated North Texas team was a heckuva statement.
10. USC: That was the type of performance USC has waited, oh, two years to see. USC out-rushed a Big Ten blue-blood 2-to-1 and won by a comfortable 18 points. It was their largest margin of victory over an AP top-15 team since 2017. Even though USC appears to be the bad guy in the upcoming hiatus of the Notre Dame rivalry, winning in South Bend with no future game schedule would feel awfully, awfully satisfying for the Men of Troy.
VIBES DOWN
1. North Carolina: You know it's going well when your head coach has to release a statement in the middle of an off week saying he's not going to call it quits in the middle of his first season. The bad news for UNC: there are no more off weeks until the season ends at NC State on Nov. 29. The worse news: by all accounts, this failed experiment will continue past this season.
2. Wisconsin: Luke Fickell did our work for us after Iowa's 37-0 blanking of his Badgers, their largest margin of victory in this rivalry since 1894. "Well, that’s as low as it can be," Fickell said. We'll see.
3. Auburn: In a sport that is stricken with a fatal case of instant replay addiction, I have no idea how or why that fumble was allowed to remain a fumble. But, it was. AD John Cohen berating officials on their way to the locker room foreshadowed a second-half performance in which the Tigers' offense failed to crack 30 yards of offense before the game was out of reach. No team has endured a harsher whistle than Auburn this season, but they've also failed to respond to bad luck and/or create their own.
4. Florida State: At this point, the Alabama win looks like one of the biggest WTF outcomes of the season. Florida State has now lost nine ACC games in a row and is 1-10 in conference play after going 9-0 in 2023. The fewest points allowed during that span to an ACC opponent is 23; everyone else has at least gotten to 28.
5. Oklahoma: No program made more changes without changing the head coach than Oklahoma. There's a new executive advisor, a new general manager, a new offensive coordinator, and a new quarterback. But after failing to score a touchdown in Dallas for the second year in a row -- and third of four, Steve Sarkisian interjects -- Oklahoma fans are now wondering if those were just half-measures. Specifically, if new OC Ben Arbuckle should've been allowed to bring in some position coaches, especially when the positions that underachieved last season (TE, RB, OL) are still underachieving this season. And if OU has more Saturdays ahead that closes with five straight AP top-20 opponents, the restless faithful will begin wondering if the Sooners should've changed out the head coach, too.